Flame Nebula and the Great Orion Nebula(2)

Flame Nebula: a part of Orion Molecular Cloud: to the left of Zeta Orionis (a blue supergiant star). Numerous stars inside the nebula cause its glow; interstellar dust forms dark filaments.
A deep scarlet canvas of hydrogen nebula lies beneath Zeta Orionis; a dark spot, which resembles (in better resolution) a head of a horse is (obviously) called Horsehead Nebula.

Setup: Canon EOS 600D with Jupiter 37A(135mm focal length f/3.5 lens) on EQ-5 (motorized, unguided). ISO=400; f/5.
It is the severely cropped result of stacking of 45 frames (120s each taken during three nights) calibrated and aligned in IRIS. Stacking of frames was done in FITStacker using a sigma-clipping algorithm. Post-processing: RawTherapee, NoiseWare, FITSwork.

January 2017
Kyiv (Osokorky district)

The Great Orion Nebula: a better version of the image posted before [45x120s]

Both nebulas in one image (three bright stars are Orion's belt) [45x120s]

Vesta in Gemini #2

Asteroid Vesta: visual movement in front of stars

Vesta in Gemini

Asteroid Vesta: 2017-21-01 ~23:18-23:28 (UT+2)
Canon EOS 600D + Jupiter 37A @f/5 on EQ5
Exp: 10x30s; ISO=800
Crop 4x4 deg
Kyiv, Osokorky

Orion Nebula

An evening of 19th of January 2017 was clear, so I caught the first deep sky image in the new year!

I brought my motorized EQ5 to my backyard, put Canon EOS 600D (with Jupiter 37A lens) on it and captured a series of frames up to full discharge of Canon's battery (an outside temperature was -6*C approximately). I managed to capture 27 lights (about half of them with the best quality I used for image creation).

The target was the Great Orion Nebula (M42). This is my second attempt to catch the Nebula.

Calibration and alignment of 13x120s light frames were made using IRIS (7 darks, 7 offsets, and 7 flats were used for calibration). Calibrated frames were stacked using FITStacker. Gamma-correction and initial color balance were done in FITStacker too. Then the resulted png image was post-processed in RawTherapee (additional level and color balance); image noise was reduced in NeatImage. The resulted jpeg image was slightly fitted by FSViewer. The image is cropped (see the second one for full version).

Full (uncropped) image.
The same set of frames processed in DeepSkyStacker (calibration, alignment, stacking). Then the stacked result was treated by FITStacker (gamma-correction, initial color balance). Post-processing was done in RawTherapee (additional level and color balance) and NeatImage (noise reduction).

Annotated version of images (by nova.astrometry.net)

Thin Crescent Moon

Thin crescent Moon captured on 30-12-2016 at 17:00 (UT+2) in Kyiv.

The Moon is 1 day old; <2% illuminated.

Altitude of the Moon is about 3.5 degrees above the horizon.

Canon EOS 600D + EF 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II @250mm

ISO 800; Exp=1s; F/9

Comet 45P Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova (2)

The next chance to catch the comet occurred on 2nd of January. Despite a weather forecast, the sky was clear.

During the session, the comet was very close to the horizon (~8 degrees).

I used Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8 @f/2.5 on tripod (through open window), ISO=400.

Here is a result of stacking of 77 frames (3.2s each) in Deep Sky Stacker (19 darks and 19 offsets were used for calibration) with subsequent processing in FITStacker and RawTherapee.

A size of the visible field is 4x4 degrees.

The comet is in the center like a green star. A faint star near the comet to the upper-left has a visible magnitude 9.6m.

Date/Time: 2017-01-02 17:27-17:41 (UT+2)
Place: Kyiv

Location (by nova.astrometry.net):